The present invention is directed generally to a system and application for collecting and tracking process capability data for manufacturers of parts.
Process capability relates to the ability of a manufacturer or supplier to produce, from a design, parts or products that do not have any defects. Defects in a part or product can range from not having a part dimensioned within design tolerances to a part that does not have the proper material composition. Defects in parts can impact a company's profitability, if the company has to discard or repair parts because of defects in the parts. In addition, defects in the parts can also pose safety risks to the company's employees and customers, if the parts are incorporated into machines and devices, which fail because of the defects in the parts. Therefore, a company would want to use manufacturers or suppliers that can produce parts and products without defects. For example, a company that desires high quality may require a manufacturer or supplier to produce parts or products with less than five defects per million opportunities.
The ability of the company to measure the process capability of a manufacturer or supplier is important for the company to determine if the manufacturer or supplier is producing parts or products with the desired level of quality. One technique for a company to measure the process capability of a supplier is for the supplier to enter manufacturing and process capability data into a spreadsheet and then transmit the data to the company by fax, mail or e-mail. The process capability information is then only available to a select group of people who have access to the e-mail or fax with the data. In addition, each supplier may use a different spreadsheet program or each supplier may format the data in the spreadsheet differently. This non-uniformity between suppliers results in the receiver of the information having to use several spreadsheet programs or having to take the time to reformat the received information in order to be able to understand and compare information.
Another technique for the company to measure the process capability of a supplier is for the supplier to provide the information “on-line” to the company. While this technique may provide many people with access to the data, the technique had several drawbacks. One drawback is that the supplier has to directly connect to the company's computer and enter the information one record at a time through a complicated and difficult to use interface. In addition, a significant amount of time is required to enter the information into the computer because of very slow update and refresh times for the system.
Other available techniques are related to supply chain management, but not to tracking process capability. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,582 relates to a decision support system for the management of a supply chain. The decision support system can be used to model processes of the supply chain such as inventory control and sales forecasting. The information from the models can then be used to make decisions on how to manage the supply chain. U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,915 also relates to the management of a supply chain. Management of the supply chain is accomplished by providing parties in the supply chain with a business scenario or plan and then reviewing the information and feedback from the parties regarding the plan to make a decision on the plan. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,343 relates to a production planning system. The production planning system is used to develop and manage plans for maintaining production dates and capacities.
Therefore, what is needed is a system that can collect and report on process capability data that can be widely accessed by both company employees and suppliers while being easy to use and quickly updated.